Facebook Sued By Woman Who Says They Lured Her Into Sex Trafficking

A woman in Houston, Texas has filed a formal lawsuit against Facebook and accuses the company of luring her into sex trafficking. That may seem like a bold claim and a disturbing one, but what the lawsuit is targeting may actually be a genuine problem with social media that no one wants to address.

In the lawsuit, an anonymous woman claims the social media giant provides a gateway for sexual predators to engage and coerce young girls into compromising sexual activities which can ultimately lead to them becoming victims of sex trafficking. The woman filed the lawsuit Monday in state district court in Harris County.

The woman's lawsuit is seeking $10,000 in damages from the social media company and alleges that Facebook and Backpage.com benefited from the sexual exploitation of the sex trafficking victim. The victim is only referred to as Jane Doe in the lawsuit but describes Doe as a 15-year-old Facebook user in 2012.

The same year she accepted a friend request from a user who had friends in common with the victim. The lawsuit goes on to describe the Facebook friend intentionally targeting Doe by complimenting her looks and saying things such as she was pretty enough to be a model. The Facebook friend also made falsely promised financial security and a better life if she would only become a model.

Soon after the online encounter with the Facebook friend, Doe had an argument with her mother and told her new friend about it. The Facebook friend offered her a modeling job with the promise of getting enough money to pay for an apartment of her own. They also offered to pick her up so they could talk about the fight between Doe and her mother. Doe agreed to the meet and was picked up by her new Facebook friend and just hours later she had been exploited with sexually suggestive photos of her posted on the website Backpage.com. Doe also alleges she was raped, beaten and forced into sex trafficking.

One of the attorneys for Doe named Annie McAdams said, "This courageous survivor fought back to rebuild her life. With the help of Chapter 98 protection, we believe trafficking survivors in Texas can expose and hold accountable businesses such as Facebook, Inc. that benefit from these crimes of exploitation."

The lawsuit goes to say Facebook "has continually been used to facilitate human trafficking by allowing sex traffickers an unrestricted platform to stalk, exploit, recruit, groom, recruit, and extort children into the sex trade." The suit alleges that Facebook not only provides an unrestricted platform for sex traffickers to operate and target children on, but it also allows traffickers to hide behind credibility.

David E Harris, of Sico Hoelscher Harris LLP, who is also representing Doe said, "We believe Facebook has an obligation to safeguard and to warn its users, both through its online platform and otherwise, of the dangers of human traffickers using Facebook as a tool to entrap and enslave children into sex trafficking."